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In their seven years of meandering to make the playoffs, the Maple Leafs have seldom led the NHL in any category they’d care to promote.

But in its game-night media notes package, the team now makes mention of its top spot in fighting majors. It’s twinned with a stat on Toronto topping the league in hits, which is a greater source of dressing room pride. But the latter can be very subjective and for years has varied from arena to arena.

There is no grey area when the gloves come off and the Leafs are averaging one fight a game as they enter the second half of the season. Certainly, they’ve made conventional improvements such as a better defensive system, received consistentent goaltending and seen the blossoming of young talent such as Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk.

But without trumpeting it, the Leafs can make a direct link to being higher in the standings to walking taller on the ice. Some nights, just by sitting passively on the bench, Colton Orr, Frazer McLaren, Mark Fraser and Mike Brown (before he was traded to the lightweight Oilers) have given some security to leading scorer Kadri and discouraged any crease trespassing of James Reimer and Ben Scrivens. There was a different feel to Thursday’s game in Boston, which the Leafs lost on the scoreboard, but not in the body-contact count.

More fisticuffs this year have the quiet endorsement of general manager David Nonis and coach Randy Carlyle. Both men have added praise for the example Orr has set off the ice, shedding weight, regaining his place in the NHL and mentoring with a young team.

“He helps a lot of us,” defenceman Carl Gunnarsson said the other day. “You respect him as a guy who has been around a few years. He doesn’t come off the ice yelling at us or anything, but if something needs to be said, he will do it.”

Of course, there have been some uncomfortable moments when the Leafs’ spunk boils over. McLaren’s demolition of Ottawa’s David Dziurzynski in a sideshow bout was not received well by the public, who recall Leafs such as Nick Kypreos dying by the sword when he was concussed, and Orr being flattened by George Parros of the Ducks.

But during the seven years they’ve missed the playoffs, the Leafs were never higher than 10th in total fighting majors according to ESPN and hockeyfights.com. Now they’re already at 25 scraps, as many as they had in 2007-08 and ’06-07, both 82-game seasons.

Like it or not, history could be on the Leafs’ side. Since the ’04-05 lockout, six of seven teams who led the league in fighting majors also made the playoffs. Two of them, the 2011 Bruins and Brian Burke’s ’07 Ducks, won the Stanley Cup, although we’re not extrapolating to that degree. Fighting has a way of magically disappearing as the playoffs start, when fear of death by power-play generally keeps the rogues on the bench.

The poster boys for winning without the need for knuckles are unquestionably the Red Wings. They’ve been last in fighting majors the past four years and low in penalties in general, yet will likely make their 22nd straight playoff appearance. Didn’t these guys once rule the savage Norris Division?

“I’ve changed my personal view 100% since the 1980s,” senior vice-president and former general manager Jim Devellano said Friday.

“I know I’m very much in the minority now among my cohorts, but you could eliminate fighting and it wouldn’t disappoint me one bit.

“Yes, I drafted Bob Probert and Joey Kocur. But times have changed. The game has changed. We don’t need it. It adds nothing.”

Devellano said the Wings began changing their philosophy when the great Scotty Bowman arrived as coach in 1993.

“He appreciated skill players and we found we didn’t need the fights to win,” Devellano said.

“People enjoyed the game and we didn’t want to be killing penalties all the time. That’s continued with (GM) Ken Holland and (coach) Mike Babcock.

“I’m not here to say who is right and who is wrong on this issue, that’s just my personal opinion.”

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Apparently, fighting does help Leafs

In their seven years of meandering to make the playoffs, the Maple Leafs have seldom led the NHL in any category they’d care to promote.

But in its game-night media notes package, the team now makes mention of its top spot in fighting majors. It’s twinned with a stat on Toronto topping the league in hits, which is a greater source of dressing room pride. But the latter can be very subjective and for years has varied from arena to arena.

There is no grey area when the gloves come off and the Leafs are averaging one fight a game as they enter the second half of the season. Certainly, they’ve made conventional improvements such as a better defensive system, received consistentent goaltending and seen the blossoming of young talent such as Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk.

But without trumpeting it, the Leafs can make a direct link to being higher in the standings to walking taller on the ice. Some nights, just by sitting passively on the bench, Colton Orr, Frazer Mc